VGC SM Flex-Speed Rain Team (First team. Be brutal)

[Anbu-Flameking]

Hello! This is my first RMT on the forums, so i want any and all criticisms. From obviously the team to even the format.

Building Process:
After looking around at what data I could find, I decided to start with a Tick Room set up. Not really satisfied with Oranguru, I decided to make my start with Porygon2

Then, while thinking of ideas, i saw a bunch of people using Sun teams, and I felt like the best counter to weather, is your own weather, so I wanted a weather that would counter the sun, and the obvious choice would be Rain. And of course, the obvious choice of rain would be Peliper.

Having set up a nice wall and a Special/Utility, i needed some Physical. I wanted Intimidate, but didn't want to use Garydos due to have 2 pokemon with a quad electricity weakness in the same team, so i went with the next best thing, Krokodile

After that, I wanted something that could take advantage of the rain. I decided on Tapu Koko for the simple reason of, If i can't get the trick room out, It can sweep hard and fast. Just simple destruction.

Now, From this point on, is where my process gets a bit messy. These are I believe the weaker parts of the whole team. I am very willing to change out either of the next 2 Pokemon

I felt like I needed another Physical attacker, and something slower this time to take advantage of the trick room. After looking at my options, and noticing a distinct lack of fire, I went with Alolan Marowak for the psychic coverage, and being a bulky physical attacker

Now finally, i wanted another tank, and this one to also take good advantage of the Trick Room. I was debating around between Togedemaru and Celesteelea, but in the end Celesteela won out due to sheer surviveability.

Now, on to the Detailed Look




Porygon2 @ Eviolite
Ability: Download
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 156 Def / 36 SpA / 64 SpD
Quiet Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 0 Spe
- Trick Room
- Discharge
- Tri Attack
- Recover

I started with Trick Room for both my benefit and my opponents bane. Being able to cancel out their trick room with yours, and follow up with a Peliper tailwind has shown great promise in my testing. And of course, having it up to deal with the sweepers things like Pheromosa and Kartanna is always an option.

Discharge is for when I need a trick room approach to electric attacks. and Koko is too slow to deal with it. I was also Considering Ice Beam for this slot, but feel as if that move works better on Peliper, as I will get to.

Recover is for when i have celesteele and itself out and need to stall while Toxic and Leech Seed do their work. Also usefull for my allies multi-target moves like discharge and earthquake, where the little damage it does to Porygon2 is heal instantly

Tri Attack is stab, plain and simple. This is a move i could definitely cut if someone has a better idea, but I couldn't think of anything else so i went with dice rolling status effects.


Pelipper @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Drizzle
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 148 SpA / 108 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
- Scald
- Tailwind
- Ice Beam
- Protect

Peliper was designed to be a jack of all trades, and its moveset reflects that.

Scald while boosted in the rain and its burn chance make for a very solid stab attack against a lot of the big physical threats like Krokodile, Gigalith, and other such pokemon

Tailwind is the backup for if Porygon2 doesn't get his Trick Room up, or for when i'm against another trick room, and I can double room and Tailwind for a great advantage.

Ice Beam is to deal with the threatening dragons like Garchomp or Salamance, or Drampa. Also good against any birds I may encounter that Koko or Porygon2 can't handel.

Then finally i went with Protect so i could Discharge freely, and stall a turn incase I ever needed too.



Tapu Koko @ Life Orb
Ability: Electric Surge
Level: 50
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Thunder
- Dazzling Gleam
- Protect

Discharge is incredably useful for dealing with other rain teams. Sending this out with Porygon2 Makes for a very hard hit against most anything

Thunder is for dealing with the big scale threats, like opponents trick room, or dragon danced Garydos, and anything not ground or grass that needs to lose a lot of HP really fast.

Dazzling Gleam was added specificly for Garchomp. Peliper couldn't stand up against Banded Garchomp, so I needed something speedy to take care of it incase of emergencies.

Protect is so allies earthquake doesn't destroy my own team aswell.

Krookodile @ Choice Band
Ability: Intimidate
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Crunch
- Dragon Claw
- Rock Slide

I specificly picked Krookodile for his earthquake in dealing with other Tapu Koko's and the occasional odd Alolan-Raichu. Also just a really strong move, that all my pokemon can dodge in one way or another (Except Porygon2 but Recover kind of works)

Crunch is for dealing with pokemon like Oranguru and other annoying phychic types that could prove dangerous. Dragon Claw is another way of dealing with dragons for if option Ice Beam or Dazzle Gleam fail.

And Rock Slide is for Rock coverage and nobody else could use it. This is another move that I picked mostly because coverage, so I'm willing to get rid of it for anything better.

Marowak-Alola @ Thick Club
Ability: Lightning Rod
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
Adamant Nature
- Earthquake
- Shadow Bone
- Flare Blitz
- Protect

This whole pokemon serves as pretty much a second Krookodile, and as such has a very similar move set.

The Earthquake is there for the same reason as it is on Krookodile. it hits hard, it hits annoying electrical threats, and thick club makes it hit even harder.

Shadow Bone is there for Ghost STAB and also, specifically, Tapu Lele. I realized that none of my pokemon could straight counter a Lele, so i felt like I needed this in there.

Flare Blitz was added for any steel, grass, or bug types. Specifically the Ultra Beasts who fall in that category.

And protect is there not to prevent ally attacks, for unless something goes very wrong and I put Krookodile and Marowak on the same team, there's nothing that really hurts him. The protect is for when I have another sweeper out, and I predict they'll want to hit Marowak and not the other. It's there mostly for stall in that regard

Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
Level: 50
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Leech Seed
- Iron Head
- Protect
- Toxic

I decided to go Utility Tank for this one, making it a good option for dealing with opposing sweepers.

Leech Seed is for that good stall. Healing every turn from 2 opponents is too good to pass up right now.

Iron Head is my specific Fairy weapon, and only one. I find this to be an issue, but having Iron Head so far has proven to be enough when the majority of fairy types out there happen to be another type my team can counter.

Protect is for stopping the Discharge from allies, and for adding some extra heal from Leech seed and chip damage from Toxic.

Toxic is a tanks best friend. The constant chip damage while healing from Leftovers, and Leech seed stack up fast.







Right, that's all I have. This is my first ever VGC team, so any and all suggestions are welcome, and appreciated. Thank you again.

 

[WistfulAether]

The team composition itself is definitely good, you likely don't have to change the mons themselves, but I do see a few issues.

Having Tapu Koko be the main mon that takes advantage of rain when you seem to be primarily focused on Trick Room might not be the greatest idea without Oranguru. As it is a rain team, you're going to want to use Koko's crazy power with Thunder a lot, and with Trick Room up basically everything will out (under)speed you and you won't be able to take full advantage of the rain. Focusing more on Tailwind while having Trick Room is a backup is probably a better idea, in which you might want to consider a Focus Sash on Pelipper so you can get up at least one guaranteed Tailwind.

On Pelipper Ice Beam is totally fine, but you definitely might want to consider Hurricane if you end up having trouble with something like Lilligant/Tapu Bulu/Hariyama or other things that just die to a Hurricane.

One thing that definitely has to change is EQ on Marowak, which should be Bonemerang. The accuracy is shaky but the single target ground move picks up a LOT more KOs and you don't have to worry about getting hit by it yourself, and considering the fact that you already have Krookodile it's definitely unnecessary.

Besides that it looks good, but definitely think about what primary speed control you want.

 

[Anbu-Flameking]

The team composition itself is definitely good, you likely don't have to change the mons themselves, but I do see a few issues.

Having Tapu Koko be the main mon that takes advantage of rain when you seem to be primarily focused on Trick Room might not be the greatest idea without Oranguru. As it is a rain team, you're going to want to use Koko's crazy power with Thunder a lot, and with Trick Room up basically everything will out (under)speed you and you won't be able to take full advantage of the rain. Focusing more on Tailwind while having Trick Room is a backup is probably a better idea, in which you might want to consider a Focus Sash on Pelipper so you can get up at least one guaranteed Tailwind.

On Pelipper Ice Beam is totally fine, but you definitely might want to consider Hurricane if you end up having trouble with something like Lilligant/Tapu Bulu/Hariyama or other things that just die to a Hurricane.

One thing that definitely has to change is EQ on Marowak, which should be Bonemerang. The accuracy is shaky but the single target ground move picks up a LOT more KOs and you don't have to worry about getting hit by it yourself, and considering the fact that you already have Krookodile it's definitely unnecessary.

Besides that it looks good, but definitely think about what primary speed control you want.

I tried out all the suggested changes and they all work for the better, especially the Focus Sash. Thanks for the advice.

 

[WistfulAether]

I tried out all the suggested changes and they all work for the better, especially the Focus Sash. Thanks for the advice.

You're welcome :]